Stegodyphus mimosarum

Stegodyphus mimosarum, the African social velvet spider, is a species of the genus Stegodyphus, one of the velvet spiders. It is a social species, which is found in South Africa and Madagascar.^[1] The genome sequence was published in 2014.^[2] Similar to closely related species such as Stegodyphus sarasinorum, S. mimosarum engages in communal living which involves remaining with the same colony even when prey availability is low, moving away in order to expand the nest not due to lack of food.

African social velvet spider
female and male
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Eresidae
Genus:	Stegodyphus
Species:	S. mimosarum
Binomial name
Stegodyphus mimosarum Pavesi, 1883